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UBS reiterated a Neutral rating on DENTSPLY International (NASDAQ: XRAY), and raised the price target to $67.00 (from $64.00), following the company's 3Q earnings report. The miss on the top-line relative to consensus was a result of a change in dealer buying patterns where the company received fewer orders than usual ahead of its annual October price increases. The bottom end of EPS guidance was raised by 5c to $2.75-2.80.

Analyst Matt Miksic commented, "XRAY reported Q3 sales of $954 mil (+0.4% CC) or $14 mil below our estimates with most of the shortfall driven by lower than expected sales in the U.S. (-$18 mil) partially offset by EU (+$3 mil) and ROW (+$1 mil). Summer softness along with the timing of dealer orders in the U.S. led to the weaker than expected U.S. sales in the quarter. From a business segment standpoint, Consumables were -$15 mil below what we were looking for with Technologies revenues right in-line with our estimates. On the bottomline, lower sales net of COGS (-6c) were offset by lower SG&A (+5c), a lower tax rate (+5c) and a lower share count (+1c) to deliver EPS of 66c, 5c better than our estimates. Management closed the MIS deal at the end of September, but continues to explore strategic opportunities to deliver shareholder value followed by share repurchases. We maintain our Neutral rating on XRAY, raising our price target from $64 to $67 driven primarily by rolling forward our basis from 2017 to 2018."

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